J - The Sociopath
by Monica Durham PsyD MBA
Summary: J explores the sociopathy of the Codys, his personality, and his future. By doing the most sociopathic thing he could do to a person short of murder, he learns that he just might not be full Cody, not an animal, not a true sociopath.


**The Sociopath**

 **Takes place during Season 2 or Season 3.**

 **Characters:** Dr. Jessica Wyles, Clinical Psychologist

"J" Joshua Cody

 **Dr. Jessica Wyles**

Jessica is a clinical psychologist who has recently moved to Southern California from Ft. Worth, Texas. Although she is in her mid-thirties, she looks much younger. She has brought her Texas style to California and often wears denim, expensive cowboy boots, and boots with a dress/skirt. She had her own practice in Texas and was successful. She has recently broken off an engagement to her long-time boyfriend who drinks too much and recently hit her for the first time. She is running from that relationship in her move to California. She is very fit and plays a game called Ultimate Frisbee. Part of the reason she moved to California is so that she can play beach ultimate. She has been hurt and used by every man she has ever been with and feels too broken to date. She lives a fairly solitary life, just her and her beloved lab-mix dog, "Jinx." She often runs on the beach with Jinx and plays with him in the water. All of her friends are people she plays ultimate with. She never has plans on Friday or Saturday nights and is lonely, but happier in California than she was in Texas. She has joined a practice in Southern California and is somewhat of an expert in personality disorders.

 **"** **J" Joshua Cody**

J is afraid of who he is becoming. He doesn't want to be as cold-blooded as the Codys, but finds the adrenaline rush of committing crimes and the high life of money irresistible. With his mother having been an absentee drug addict, he has never felt a sense of family. This is the best part of being a Cody for him….this sense of belonging. He finally feels like he belongs somewhere, belongs to a family. He likes that Smurf and his uncles think he is smart and he likes the challenge of solving potential problems of upcoming jobs. He is not sure if he has ever loved anybody. He thinks he might have loved Nikki, and it hurts him that she is dating Craig, whom J sees as reckless, stupid, and on the path to drug addiction. J admires Daren for striking out on his own and buying the bar, but doesn't like Daren's moodiness. J likes Baz, but sees the same ruthless psychopathic tendencies in him that he sees in Smurf. J is afraid of Pope and thinks he is unstable, unpredictable, and crazy.

J desperately wants to trust someone and knows he cannot trust his family, at least not completely. Not with everything. He is afraid his humanity is slipping away as he slides deeper into the criminal life. He is afraid that he is becoming a psychopath and although he doesn't want this to happen, he loves the life of criminality and money. He is confused about who he is and afraid of what he is becoming. He seeks counseling with a psychologist after he finds out from a student at school that psychologists have to keep their conversations with patients at the highest level of confidentiality. He has looked up psychologist's ethics online and he knows that even if a psychologist's progress notes are subpoenaed into a court of law, the psychologist does not have to comply with the subpoena due to the privilege of confidentiality. He desperately wants to trust someone. He wants to know if he is a sociopath. He misses his mother and has unresolved anger and resentment towards her that he wants help dealing with. He has also been seriously affected by the beating he received at the hands of Javi. He feels a murderous rage towards Javi and his thugs that is so intense, it both empowers and scares him. He decides he is going to see a psychologist to try to get some help and answers about himself and his feelings. He knows the Codys CANNOT ever find out he is talking to somebody about them and he is very secretive about his visits with his psychologist, Dr. Jessica Wyles. He has found her by googling therapists in his zip code on the Psychology Today website. He thinks her picture is pretty and she looks like a nice person.

 **Scene 1 – J and Dr. Wyles Meet**

J has come for his first session with Dr. Wyles. He is paying cash for the visit so that his visit is undiscoverable. He sits outside the building for a long time fingering the two $100 bills he is going to pay her with. He is battling with himself, thinking "Do I do this or do I not?" He makes up his mind to do it and heads inside, hood on his hoodie up over his head. As he enters the office, he looks over his shoulder and scans the office for cameras. He does not see any, but still does not trust that he is not being recorded. The receptionist asks him if he is "Joshua" and he nods. The receptionist tells him that Dr. Wyles's office is down the hall, last door on the left.

J walks down the hall and enters Dr. Wyles's office. The first thing he sees upon entering is a painting that says "Don't Mess with Texas." Other pictures on the wall are of horses and barns. There is a desk in the far corner and a couch and two comfy arm chairs that face each other. The entire left side of the office is windows overlooking the beach. The couch and chairs are centered around a coffee table. J notices that there is a Bible on the bottom shelf of the coffee table. He wonders what he has gotten himself into. He doesn't know what he expected a psychologist's office to be like but he knows this isn't it. He turns around on his heel, and heads down the hall to leave. Coming towards him is a lovely young woman wearing cowboy boots, a denim skirt, and a tight white shirt. She smiles at him and completely disarms him with the most genuine smile he has ever seen. She asks, "Are you Joshua?" He nods, fascinated by her. She says she is happy that he came and lets him know that her office is the last one on the left. He no longer wants to leave. He wants to talk to this sunny, genuine woman. He turns around and follows her into her office, looking uncomfortable and unsure of what to do. She invites him to sit down wherever he likes. He chooses the couch and has a seat.

She says, "So what brings you here, Joshua? What's going on for you? How can I help you?" He is tongue tied and still mesmerized by her, his expression flat and betraying none of his feelings. After a pause, he says "I…I need to talk to someone. I need to be able to trust someone. I'm afraid I'm becoming a psychopath. I don't even know where to start." She smiles her smile at him and says, "I can help with these things." He asks "Are there cameras in here? Are you recording me?" She says, "No. Not in here. There is a camera in the waiting room, but the footage is erased at the end of each week. I promise the footage is not shared with anybody. It seems confidentiality is important to you?" He says, "Yes. Nobody can EVER know I'm here or what I talk about."

She says "Nobody ever will. Let me explain confidentiality to you. What you and I talk about is 100% confidential. I can't give anybody information identifying you as my patient. Even if I got summoned to testify in court, I would claim confidentiality and share nothing. This is a well-known and well-accepted principle. It's similar to a lawyer's confidentiality with the people they represent. Having said that, there are two exceptions to this." He narrows his eyes at her and turns his head slightly away from her, suspicious. As he well knows, there is always a catch. He waits for the other shoe to drop. She says "Here are the exceptions: If at any point I think you are in danger of hurting yourself or someone else, I have to take whatever steps are necessary to keep everybody safe. So for example, if you disclose to me that you are planning on shooting up a movie theater, I have to tell the police. But as long as you don't say anything that makes me think you're a danger to yourself or others, everything we talk about is protected by confidentiality. And even if I did have to call the police because you are a danger to yourself or others, I would only give the police the information they need. I wouldn't tell them any details about what we talk about, aside from the details about why you are a danger. Does that make sense?" He says "Yes" and he visibly relaxes a bit, pulls the hood off his head, and no longer looks hypervigilant.

He isn't ready to talk about himself yet and changes the subject, "So are you from Texas?" She laughs and says "Yes, what gave me away?" while she looks around the room sarcastically. He asks, "What brings you to California?" She says, "I needed a fresh start. I love the beach. I love animals. There are seals and sea lions and tide pools with all kinds of critters here. I had a frisbee friend who lives here and she offered me a place to crash until I could get my own place. I took her up on her offer." She gives him another smile, but this one is a bit sad, and he wonders what happened to her that made her need a fresh start. He is surprised to find himself wanting to comfort her. He says, "I've recently had kind of a fresh start here too. My mother OD'ed and I've never met my father. I called my grandmother and she took me in. They're not a normal family, though."

She says "What do you mean by 'not a normal family?'" He looks at her for a long time and eventually says, "They, uh, they don't have normal jobs. They do things that are against the law…to make money." She asks, "Like sell drugs or something?" He says, "Yeah, something like that. I came from nothing. My mother spent all of her money on drugs. I had one shirt, one pair of pants, one pair of shoes. Smurf has tons of money, tons of properties, tons of cars." "Smurf?" she asks, baffled. He says, "Smurf. That's what they call my grandmother. I don't know why. Even her sons call her Smurf." She says "Interesting. I wonder what cartoon character I would be?" and smiles her smile at him. Their eyes lock. She asks him, "Who would you be?" He laughs and she joins him in the laughter. END OF SCENE.

 **Scene 2 – Session 2 of Therapy**

He enters her office, hood up. She looks up from her desk, welcomes him, and gets up to sit across from him. She is wearing the same pair of cowboy boots, tight jeans, and a fitted, plaid, button-down shirt. She smiles at him and says, "So what's new with you? What would you like to talk about today?" He is again disarmed by her smile and his mind goes blank. She waits patiently for him to say something. He blurts out "I want to know if I'm a psychopath." She looks surprised, clearly not expecting him to say that. She says, "What makes you think you're a psychopath?" He says, "I like to do bad things. I don't know if I have ever loved anybody. I want to hurt people." She asks him, "Do you feel remorse or guilt when you do these bad things?" He says, "I don't know. I do feel bad sometimes, but not other times." The scene flashes away from the office to him committing crimes; the diner he robbed with Smurf, him in the church storage room, etc, him celebrating after a successful job with a big score. He says again, "I don't know." She says, "Well, the fact that you feel bad some of the time is a good sign. You're not totally devoid of feelings of remorse. When you're not feeling remorseful about something you have done, how do you feel? He says, "Numb. Cold. I feel nothing. And the more jobs I do, the more numb I feel." She says, "What do you mean by jobs?" He hesitates and looks at her suspiciously. He answers vaguely, looking down at his shoes, "Uh, stealing." END OF SCENE.

 **Scene 3 – Session 3 of Therapy**

He walks into her office and they lock eyes. She smiles her sunny smile as she gets up to sit across from him. He loves her smile. She is wearing a short denim dress and black heels. She has beautiful, strong, tan legs. He can see up the slit in her dress as she sits down. He wonders how old she is. Dr. Wyles says "Tell me more about your family. About your mother, your grandmother, your uncles." He is no longer uncomfortable with her and opens right up. "When my mother wasn't high, she was awesome. Smart. Funny. Kind. I never really knew the rest of my family because they cut her out of their lives after she stole from them to buy drugs. Smurf can be loving, but she's also the most ruthless person I've ever met. She has done horrible things. My uncles are crazy. Pope was my mother's twin brother." She says "Pope? As in the Pope in the Vatican?" He laughs and says, "I guess so. His real name is Andrew, but everyone calls him Pope." She asks, "And does he do bad things too?" He says, "Yes." She says with a smile, "Interesting. A criminal named Pope. A part of me loves that." He smiles at her and they have a moment of connection. He breaks the silence, "Pope is scary. He's legit crazy. Paranoid. He takes medication. He just got out of prison." She asks, "Why was he in prison?" He says, "He robbed a bank." She nods. He says, "Baz isn't biologically related to the Codys, but Smurf took him in when he was young. He is a lot like Smurf. She considers him to be a son. Baz and Pope are close. And my mother used to be close to Baz and Pope. There is a triangle that is carved into the bed I'm sleeping in, in the room that used to be Pope's, that says "B-P-J…my mom was Julia. I feel like there is more to the story there but when I ask about it, nobody tells me anything… I thought Baz might be my father. I asked Baz about it. He got all hostile and aggressive and said, "So what if I am? What are you going to do about it?" J looks away, deep in thought. Her brows knit as she shakes her head and says, "Gah. That's awful."

He comes to and says, "Craig is the next one." J scowls as he talks about Craig. "He is lazy. He snorts a lot of cocaine and is irresponsible. He burned his own apartment down with a lit joint." J shakes his head and says, "What an idiot. He's dating my girlfriend…my EX-girlfriend, I mean." Her eyebrows raise as she says, "Oh wow. That must be hard for you." He says, "Yeah. It's hard to watch them. I want her back but she doesn't want me. She lives at Smurf's house too." There is a moment of silence as J looks down at his shoes scowling. She says, "Your ex-girlfriend…" "Nikki," he interrupts her. "So Nikki, she lives with you? What could be worse than having to see your ex every day in your house?" He smiles sadly and says "Yeah, we share a bathroom." She says "Brutal," shaking her head. He says, "Yeah…."and stares off again in thought.

He comes to and says, "Daren is the youngest. He is trying to distance himself from the family and make a…a more legitimate living. He just opened a bar." "Which bar?" she asks. He answers, "The Strand. Off 5th and 8th." She says, "Oh yeah, I know where that is. I'll tell my frisbee friends to go there. They drink a LOT of beer, amongst other things" she says laughing. He is touched by the fact that she would make an effort to help Daren, a stranger to her. He feels himself starting to have feelings for her. END OF SCENE

 **Scene 4 – Stakeout 1**

J can't stop thinking about Dr. Wyles...Jessica. He finds himself wondering how old she is, if she has a boyfriend, if she likes him, etc. He stands across the street from her office building at the end of the day and watches her walk out of the building. She gets in her car and drives off. He follows her on his bike. She parks by the beach, carries a duffel bag into a public bathroom, and comes out wearing sporty clothes. She joins her frisbee friends on the beach and he watches from afar as she laughs with her friends and plays ultimate frisbee on the beach.

 **Scene 5 – Session 4 of Therapy**

J has found that a week is too long to go without seeing her. During their next session, he blurts out "Can I see you more than once a week?" She looks surprised but says, "Sure. Since you're not using insurance, you can see me as often as you like." He nods. He wants to spend time with her. He wants her to smile at him. He is falling in love with her. His facial expression is flat, betraying nothing. She has a funny feeling in her stomach and feels a tinge of worry about where this therapeutic relationship is heading for him….and in her deepest, darkest thoughts, for her as well.

 **Scene 6 – Session 5 of Therapy**

It is their next session. He announces, "I got you a gift" and pulls a blue Tiffany box out of his backpack and holds it out to her. She looks shocked and says, "I…I…Thank you. Thank you for thinking of me." She looks at him with an expression of sadness and concern as she says "I…I can't take it. Psychologists aren't supposed to accept gifts from patients. It would be unethical." He feels rejected and is angry and asks "Why not?" She says, "We just can't. The thinking is that gift giving interferes with the therapeutic relationship." She looks distraught, knowing that she has just rejected him. She says, "I'm so sorry. I wish I could accept your gift and I am touched that you thought about giving me something. I wish I could take it. I'm sorry. I could lose my license to practice…" She holds her hands out, open in front of her, in a helpless gesture. He shoves the box in his backpacks and stalks out of her office. She watches him leave, a sad expression on her face. She gets up, closes the door to her office, and leans against the door, looking first up at the heavens and then closing her eyes. Her eyes tear up. She knows she shouldn't feel this way about a patient and her feelings scare her.

 **Scene 7 – Session 6 of Therapy**

He walks into her office and her face lights up more than she means it to upon seeing him. Their eyes connect and there is a moment of silence as they smile at each other, each lost in the other's gaze. A look of concern passes over her face and she says, "About the gift…." He interrupts her and says, "It's okay. I understand. I'm sorry I made you feel uncomfortable." She says, "It's okay. You didn't know. I do really appreciate that you thought to get me something so nice." He says, "it was nothing," staring down at his feet. They both know it wasn't nothing. She is looking at him sadly, wanting to give him a hug or a reassuring pat on the arm as he is staring sadly at his feet. She takes a step towards him and then turns away from him to take her seat across from his chair. He sits down and says, "We did another job. A big one." She says, "A job? Like a crime?" He says, "Yes." She asks, "How did the job make you feel?" He says, "Like I was on top of the world." She has no idea what to say to that and just continues to look at him. She finally says, "Did you feel any remorse?" He says, "No. They were rich assholes who aren't going to miss the money."

She notices the scar from Javi's beating above his brow and asks, "What happened to your face? How did you get that scar?" He says, "A thug who was trying to hurt Smurf came to our house when she wasn't home. I had left my gun in my backpack outside on the table. They caught me before I could get to it and beat me up. I told them where Smurf had money hidden. I betrayed my family." He stares at his shoes, a gloomy, sad, angry look on his face. She says, "there was more than one thug?" He says, "Yes. Three or four. I don't know. It's all kind of a blur." She can sense his shame at being beaten and says, "Well, of course they beat you. There were more of them than you and they were fully grown men." He looks up sharply and says gruffly, "I'm a grown man too." She says, "Oh, of course. I just meant there were more of them than you." He says, "Nikki was with me. They took her away in a van and dumped her in a neighborhood. It was my fault they took her. I should have protected her."

She looks at him and they lock eyes. She says, "Sometimes we do our best to protect the people we love and they get hurt anyway. Sometimes we do our best to protect ourselves and we get overpowered anyway….sometimes by the people who say they love us the most." She looks so sad as she is saying this last bit. It is clear to J that somebody who she loved and who said loved her has hurt her deeply. He has a flash of anger and says gently but gruffly, "Who hurt you?" She closes her eyes and says sadly, "A man. He was my fiancé. He said he loved me. He drank too much…and then one night he hit me. I had to leave." He comes over to kneel next to her and brushes her hair away from her cheek. He asks softly, with a worried expression on his face, "Is that why you came to California?" She straightens her back, shakes her head slightly, and says, "Yes. Anyway, enough about me. What I'm trying to say is that sometimes we get hurt despite our best efforts. People hurt us. We hurt them. Life is sometimes hard like that." He is still kneeling beside her. Their eyes lock. His murderous rage at Javi has transformed into a murderous rage against the man who hurt her, against all the people who have ever hurt her. She is uncomfortable with his nearness and stands up abruptly. She says, "We're out of time." He holds her eye as he turns around to leave. She closes the door behind her and leans against it. She cries for the love she walked away from, for how badly he hurt her. She has a flashback to her fiancé hitting her in the face. She had thought he was the life she had always dreamed of, rich, sipping champagne, married with children and a big house with a picket fence. She has never felt more alone in the world. END OF SCENE

 **Scene 8 – Stakeout 2**

J is moody and quiet around his family. Distracted. Smurf notices a difference in him and asks him what's going on. He says "Nothing. Uh…school….Nikki," and walks away from her. She watches him skeptically. He rides his bike to Dr. Wyles's office, watches her exit the building, and follows her to her house/apartment/condo. Now he knows where she lives. He wonders if she lives alone. He watches her greet Jinx. He is dying to go inside. He wants to hold her in his arms. He stays there and watches her house for a long time.

 **Scene 9 – Session 7 of Therapy**

He says, "I can't trust anybody. Baz stole from Smurf and made me be involved in it. She started it by stealing from him and my uncles. They would kill each other and sell me down the river if the price was right. I don't feel safe. I walk on egg shells." He rubs the scar above his eye from Javi's beating absent-mindedly. She says, "It's hard for us to not have anybody we can trust. We are neurobiologically wired to need others. They've done studies with babies and monkeys. We all need a safe place to fall, safe people to catch us." She doesn't have anybody she can trust either and says, "It's a lonely feeling to know you can't trust anybody."

He loves that she understands him, deeply understands him. Nobody has ever cared enough to truly understand him before. He has always had to do everything for himself. He says, "You can't trust anybody either? What about your family?" She smiles sadly and says, "My parents were well-intended but I was a vulnerable kid and they didn't know how to help me." She laughs and says, "I actually put myself up for adoption on Facebook one Christmas." He laughs with her and says, "Did anybody adopt you?" She says, "Yes. My cousin, Stacy, who is the black sheep of the family." Dr. Wyles and J laugh together. He says, "Yeah, I don't think the Codys are the monkey, babies, nurturing type. They're a whole different kind of animal." The laugh dies and their eyes are locked. He gives her a longing look.

She changes the subject, saying the first thing that comes to her mind, "So do you have any fun plans for this weekend?" He says, "No. You?" She says, "Yes! I actually do have fun plans this weekend. There is a beach ultimate frisbee tournament at Ocean beach this weekend. Right near Daren's bar. I've already told my team we are going to his bar after the tournament is over." He is again touched by her kindness towards somebody who is important to him. He says, "Maybe I'll see you there….Could I come watch you play?" She looks surprised and says, "It's a public beach. Anybody can come…." Their eyes are locked. She says, "I….I couldn't hang out with you. I could say hi to you, but I can't hang out with you. We can't be friends outside of here." He says with a sad, rueful smile, "I know. The gift." She says sadly, "Yes." He says, "Well, maybe I'll stop by."

 **Scene 10 – Saturday Morning (The morning of the tournament)**

He wakes up on Saturday morning and thinks about Dr. Wyles. Jessica. He has begun thinking about her as Jessica rather than Dr. Wyles. He flashes back to the first time he met her, how she smiled at him in the hallway. He thinks about going to the beach to try to watch her play, and starts to get up, but decides against it and lays back down. In the next bedroom, he hears Nikki and Craig laughing and having sex. He says, "Fuck it," and gets up to get dressed to find her.

 **Scene 11 – Beach Tournament**

He walks along the beach towards several fields where people are playing ultimate frisbee. He scans the fields looking for her. He sees her running on the field that is nearest to him. He finds her stunning. She is wearing shorts, a bikini top, and a sleeveless athletic shirt. She is playing the game and doesn't see him. He grabs the end chair from a line of foldable chairs, carries it about 10 feet down the sideline from the other chairs, and takes a seat. She catches the frisbee in the end zone for a score, tosses the frisbee down on the line, and heads off the field to let the defensive line come onto the field. She is walking past him as she recognizes him. She says, "J! Hi!" She is clearly happy to see him but tries to hide it. He stands up and says hi. She turns toward the field and says, pointing at a man on her team, "If you want to see good ultimate, don't watch me. Watch that guy in the hat and blue shorts. He's really good." He says, "OK."

She has brought Jinx to the fields and he is hanging out on the sideline. She calls Jinx to her and grabs a frisbee and walks back to J. She says watch this and hucks the frisbee 40 yards down the beach. Jinx gleefully chases the frisbee, catches it in the air, and brings it back to her. She says "This is Jinx. He and I came from Texas together. He is the best man ever." She pets the dog and scratches him behind the ears. She hands J the frisbee and says, "Feel free to throw it for him. He'll chase it all day." She smiles at him and they lock eyes for a second. He watches as she runs away from him towards her teammates in the middle of the sideline to get ready to play again. He is totally blown away by her. Even though she is older than Nikki, she looks better than Nikki. More lean and athletic. He smiles after her, turns, and pets Jinx, who is just happy to have another friend. END OF SCENE

 **Scene 12 – Beach Tournament Continued**

Jessica's team gets scored on and she walks off the field to get some water. She drinks some water, grabs a beer from a cooler, opens the beer, and takes a huge swig. She holds the cold beer to her forehead to cool off. She looks down the field and sees J. She grabs another beer and walks towards J. She walks up to where he is sitting watching. He is watching her as she walks up. She holds the beer out to him, smiles the smile he loves, and says, "It's hot. I never gave you this." He takes it and grins at her. She winks at him, turns, and walks back to her teammates. He toasts her back as she walks away from him and takes a deep swig from the beer. END OF SCENE

 **Scene 13 – Beach Tournament Continued, Continued**

The camera shows the game from behind J's chair, where he is sitting, watching her play. The other team has possession of the disk and one of their players throws it to a guy who is already in the end zone, unguarded. She leaves the girl she is guarding to try to block the guy on the other team from catching the disk. She and the guy from the other team both leap up at the same time reaching for the disk. He shoves her in the back from behind her and she goes flying, landing in the sand, elbows first, then knees. All of this happens right in front of J's chair. In a flash, he is up and as the guy is laughing and walking away, J shoves the guy from behind as hard as he can. The guy hits the sand, face first. He flips over saying "What the fuck? Who are you?" Jessica leaps up and puts both of her hands on J's chest. She says, "It's okay! J, I'm okay! Look!" She holds up her elbows so he can see she isn't injured. She says, "It was an accident." He is breathing hard and still in fight mode. Suddenly he relaxes and stalks off away from the fields. She watches him go, then turns to the guy still on the ground, and says, "That wasn't an accident, asshole" as she walks away from him and her teammates surround her to ask her if she is okay. Jinx runs up to her to make sure she is okay. END OF SCENE

 **Scene 14 – That Night, Daren's Bar**

Jessica's team has won the tournament and they are heading into Daren's bar, as she had promised they would be. He watches her enter the bar and aches for her. He has been thinking about how he can have her. He knows she will never consent to being with him because he is her patient. He must come up with another way, a way to force her hand. He broods as he watches her celebrate with her team through the window of the bar. Baz, Pope, and Craig are sitting at the bar. They notice Jessica as she takes shots with her team, seeing that she is attractive. As if on cue, they toast their drinks to a pretty girl and take deep drinks. J watches his uncles watching her and broods. He is thinking, thinking… END OF SCENE

 **Scene 15 – The Drug Deal**

The following Monday, J meets up with a male student at his school. The student is a shady character, a drug dealer. He says, "I need something like a date…drug. Something I can put in a drink and she won't notice." J gives the drug dealer a meaningful look. The dealer says, "I have just the thing for you." He holds out a tiny baggie with a white pill in it that looks like an aspirin. J takes the baggie from the drug dealer and asks, "What's this?" "A kind of roofie," the drug dealer says. J asks, "Have you ever used this?" The dealer says "No. I hear it works, though. I've had other clients use it and they reported good results. Just put it in her drink. It dissolves quickly." END OF SCENE

 **Scene 16 – The Drink**

Jay watches her office as she leaves for the day. She is wearing boots and a skirt again. He never knew he could love boots and a skirt as much as he loves her. He follows her to a restaurant, where she is having dinner with a girl-friend. He seats himself at a table a few tables away from hers. His hood is up over his head and he is facing away from her, but he can see her in the reflection of the window in front of him. At one point, her friend gets up to go order food and Jessica gets up and heads towards the bathroom. He stands up, walks past her table, and drops the pill into her glass of wine. Seamlessly, he walks to the back of the restaurant and out the back door. He sits on his bike and watches the front door of the restaurant, waiting for her to leave. She walks out of the restaurant, says goodbye to her friend, and starts to walk towards her car. She looks dazed and a bit confused and squats down on her heels, leaning against the wall of the restaurant. She is dizzy and not sure what is happening to her. J gets off his bike and walks up to her. He asks, "Are you okay?" She says, "Mmmm," and stares up at him blearily and blankly. He picks her up in his arms, cradling her. She leans her head against his shoulder and lets herself be carried to her car. He puts her in the passenger seat, buckles her in, and goes around to the driver's seat, sits down, and turns the engine on. The camera watches the lights of her car as he drives her away. END OF SCENE

 **Scene 17 – Her House**

Jay pulls her car up in front of her house and parks on the street. He gets out, goes around to the passenger side, and helps her out of the car. She is able to walk, but only with his support. He unlocks the front door and they enter together. Jinx greets them in the entryway, wagging his tail. J walks Jessica through the house looking for her bedroom. It's a tiny place, so the bedroom is easy to find. He picks her up again and carries her into her room. He sets her gently on the bed. He turns to close the door and lock Jinx out of the room. Jinx makes a whining sound…he knows something is wrong. J notices candles on shelves around her room and lights them. She is laying on her bed watching him, a blank look on her face. He comes back to her on the bed. He leans down and starts to kiss her. Her mouth responds to him, but in a passive, absent way. Her nipples harden and she reaches her arms around his neck. He pulls back from her, pulls his t-shirt over his head, pulls her shirt over her head. She lifts her arms to help him get the shirt off of her. She is watching him, her expression serious and a bit puzzled. He pulls off her boots, pulls off his pants, and pulls off her jeans. He notices she has a tattoo of a phoenix on her hip and he brushes over it wonderingly and lovingly with his thumb. She smiles up at him blankly. He leans away from her and props his iPhone up on her dresser. He hits record on his phone. He turns back to her. He loves her with all of his heart and leans over her to enter her as he kisses her deeply. They have sex as his phone records them. END OF SCENE

 **Scene 18 – The Morning After**

She wakes up in her bed, sun streaming through the curtains. She looks at the clock on her wall and it says 8:30 a.m. She says "Shit" and tries to haul herself up from the bed. Her first patient is at 9 a.m. and she knows she is going to be late. Her head reels and she is dizzy as she stands up. She tries to think back to what happened last night, but can't remember hardly anything. She remembers meeting her friend for dinner. She remembers saying goodbye to her friend in front of the restaurant. J's face comes to her mind but she can't remember seeing him. She gets up and staggers to the shower. END OF SCENE.

 **Scene 19 – Session 8 of Therapy**

Later that week, J comes into her office at his therapy time and sits down on the couch. He doesn't say hello and has a dark look on his face. She notices and says, "Are you ok?" He says, "I don't know…No." She asks with a concerned look on her face, "What's wrong? What happened?" He stares at her, tormented. He says, "I love you. I loved you. I want to be with you. I wanted to be with you." She looks at him puzzled, baffled by what he is saying. He holds out a manila envelope to her. She takes it and says, "What's this?" He is so ashamed, he cannot say anything. He looks at her and they lock eyes. She turns her attention to the folder and opens it. She pulls out pictures of a woman having sex with a man….she flips through the pictures, recognizes her bedroom, and a confused look crosses her face. She looks at the photos closer and recognizes herself. And then she recognizes J.

She looks up at him and says with emotion, "What?...What did I do? What did you do?" He can see her putting the pieces together in her mind. She says horrified and accusatorily, "You raped me…You raped me?" She stares at him and they lock eyes. He says again, "I love you. I loved you. I want to be with you." She says, "I can't be with you! I could lose my license!" The pieces click in her mind. She says, "You did this! You did this to me so you could have dirt on me. So you could threaten me into being with you? J! How could you do this to me? She looks away from him and stares at the photos in her hands and says, "No, no, no, no!" She frantically begins tearing the pictures up in her hands. She stands up and screams at him, "GET OUT!" as she points at the door. He feels terrible. He just wanted to love her the way she deserves to be loved. He can't move. She screams, "Get out or I'll call 9-1-1," as she reaches for her phone. He freaks out and knocks the phone out of her hands. She stands up and lunges towards her desk. He doesn't know what she is doing. She reaches under the desk and pulls out pepper spray. She starts to turn the pepper spray towards him and he punches her in the face, HARD. She crumples to the ground, knocked out. END OF SCENE

 **Scene 20 – The Awakening**

J and Jessica are still in her office. Night has fallen. He is holding a bag of ice to her face as he cradles her head in his lap. She is laying on the floor, unconscious. She stirs and starts to come to. She moans. He strokes her cheek, leaning over her. Her eyes remain closed and her voice is monotone. She says, "You booked the last appointment today on purpose. You knew I would be in the office alone. You planned the whole thing." She opens her eyes and struggles to sit up against the wall near them. "You knew I would say no so you drugged me and took pictures. You're blackmailing me. If I don't agree to be with you, you will submit the pictures to the board and I'll lose my license to practice." He says nothing and stares his blank stare, revealing none of his feelings. She says quietly, "You don't even know me. I've got more baggage than anybody I know and that includes my patients. I chew with my mouth open. I want to be a mom and I can't wait much longer on that. You're like 15 years younger than me. Dating patients is unethical." She starts to cry, "I'm going to lose everything. I worked so hard…" She looks at him and backs away from him in terror. She says, "You did this. You ARE a psychopath. You ARE an animal. You are just like them. You want what you want and you don't care how it affects other people. Y'all ruin everything and everybody you touch. You have ruined me!" He leans forward, kisses her gently on the lips, and says, "I love you." He gets up and leaves her office. She watches him leave, and cries. END OF SCENE

 **Scene 21 – The Gun**

It is the same night. She has run out of her office, runs to her car, guns the engine, and peels out. She drives straight to a pawn store and tells the guy behind the counter that she needs a gun. He takes her to a display case and she says, "How much does this one cost? How do I load it?" She looks frightened. He smiles greedily, knowing he has already made the sale. END OF SCENE

 **Scene 22 – Picking up the Pieces**

The camera pans to her laying in her bed asleep, clutching her new gun in both hands. She has fallen asleep with the gun in her hand. She wakes up and carries the gun with her to the shower. J could show up at any time, any place. She feels terrified and unsafe in the world. She barely notices Jinx as he greets her happily. She feeds him absently, not paying attention to what she is doing. She gets dressed and tucks the gun into the pocket of her favorite denim jacket. She leaves the house to walk to her car to go to the office. END OF SCENE

 **Scene 23 – The Flashback**

She is trying to work. One of the best things about her job is that when she is in pain, she can focus on her patients and their pain and not have to feel her own pain. She is having a hard time focusing on the patient in front of her. Her responses to the patient are delayed and she knows she isn't present in the moment. She is trying to wrench her attention away from her fear and into the present moment. She is having flashbacks of J knocking the phone out of her hand and punching her in the face. The patient is talking about how she was date raped in college. Jessica has a flashback of J raping her, a new memory, something she hadn't remembered before. Her stomach rolls and she vomits in her own lap. She looks ashamedly at her patient and says, "I'm so sorry." Her patient stands up and says, "How about if I just come back next week?" She says, "Yeah, okay. I'm so sorry." The patient gets up and leaves, giving her a look as she leaves. Jessica calls the receptionist and tells her, "please refund Susan her copay and cancel the rest of my cases today. I'm sick. I almost puked on Susan." She hangs up the phone and looks around the office bewildered. She is afraid to leave her office, knowing that her office door is locked and she is safe….for now. She lays down on the couch, curls up into a ball, and starts to sob. Her new gun is still tucked into the pocket of her jacket and is visible from where she lays. END OF SCENE

 **Scene 24 – J Gets "Shot"**

The camera shows her office, her asleep on the couch where she has cried herself to sleep from the scene above. Night has fallen and the sky is dark through her windows. J is outside of her office door with a shimmy, which he is using to unlock the lock on her door. The lock releases, the door swings open, and she is standing next to the couch, feet shoulder width apart, gun held up and levelled at him. He puts his hands up. He can see that she has forgotten about the safety and knows she can't kill him with the safety on. A rookie mistake. Smurf taught him better. His facial expression betrays nothing, but he thinks, "Oh god, what have I done? She's right. We do ruin everything we touch. I am an animal. I am all Cody." His eyes tear up as she says, "I can't sleep. I have nightmares…bits and pieces. I can't work. I had a flashback while I was working with a patient who has been raped. I puked on myself." She glances down at the vomit on her lap and he sees it as well. She shakes her head and says, "I can't do this." He is horrified. This wasn't what he wanted. He just wanted to love her and for her to love him. He backs up to flee from her and from himself and from the reality of how badly he has hurt her. He hasn't been shot with a gun, but he feels like he has been shot nonetheless. Part of him wishes she would shoot him. He flees.

 **Scene 25 – J Tries to Make Amends**

She is sitting at the desk of her office staring out of the window, totally lost in her thoughts. She looks sad and on the verge of tears. She is lost in her thoughts of how much of a mess her life has become. She is on the verge of losing everything. She can finally relate to her patients who have been raped. She hates her body, never wants to have sex again. She hates herself for trusting J and even caring about him. Most of all, she hates J for doing this to her. She knows it is only a matter of time before he gets angry and turns the photos of them having sex over to the board of psychologists in California and she loses her license. Sleeping with patients is an unforgivable offense. She knows it won't matter when she claims he drugged her. She looks awake and happy enough in the photos. She knows her friend will say she looked fine when they parted in front of the restaurant. She wishes she could remember more.

She has told the receptionist to not let J into the office. She hears a commotion in the reception area and as she looks at the door, J strides into the room followed by the receptionist, who is saying he isn't supposed to see Dr. Wyles anymore. Jessica is passive. The damage has already been done. She says to the receptionist, "It's okay. I'll talk to him." The receptionist looks worried, but leaves the room and closes the door behind her.

Jay walks up to her at her desk and puts a package of bills on her desk. She is staring out the window blankly and says passively, "I don't want that." He says, "Please. Let me help you. I know you haven't been working much." She says in a monotone voice, "You're trying to buy me. Do you think that money is the reason I do what I do? That money is the thing that gives my life purpose and meaning? Money isn't what gives my life meaning and purpose. Helping people in their suffering is what gives my live meaning and purpose. And you are going to take that away from me. I can't give you what you want from me. You broke me. Now I'm the one who needs help." She continues to stare out the window. Understanding dawns on his face. He had never thought that helping others could be a motivating factor, the reason someone would continue living. She pulls her gun out of the pocket of her denim jacket and holds it out to him. She says, "Take it. Put me out of my misery. I don't want to survive this. Do it." She looks at him pleadingly. He says pleading back to her, "No. I'm sorry. I'll give you the pictures, the data. We can destroy it together. I didn't want this." She says in her same monotone voice, staring out of the window again, "It won't matter. I'll never trust that you don't have backup copies. I'll never be able to forget that I was raped…by a patient…that I trusted…in my own office. It doesn't matter." He says, "I'll give you a good life." She says, "I don't want a good life. I wanted MY LIFE." He is disturbed by her use of the past tense, her saying "I wanted" with regard to her life. He is overcome by pain and self-hatred. If this is becoming a Cody, it's awful. He doesn't want this. He didn't want this. He turns and walks out of her office. She doesn't blink and continues to stare out of her window.

 **Scene 26 – Jessica Makes a Suicide Attempt**

Jay is at Smurf's house laying on his bed in his room. He texts Jessica, "R u ok?" She is sitting cross legged on the couch in her living room in her pajamas. The sun is setting on the beach. She is watching the sunset. She loved California. The gun and her phone are sitting in her lap. She gets the text and replies back, "No. I'll never be okay again. I'm afraid. I don't feel safe anywhere. I can't deal with this. I'm not you." He reads her text and pops up out of bed, hurriedly gets dressed, and hops on his bike. He pulls up in front of her house and tries the lock. It's locked. He busts the door open and rushes inside. Her silhouette is seen against the backlighting of the sunset she is watching. The silhouette is of her holding a gun to the side of her head. He rushes in and takes the gun away from her from behind her. He puts the safety on and walks out onto her back porch. He throws the gun as far as he can out onto the deserted beach. He comes back inside and sits next to her. He pulls her into his lap and she clings to him and buries her head in his shoulder as she starts to sob. He says "I have learned through all of this that I'm not an animal. I'm not a psychopath. You answered my question. I love you so much it hurts. Psychopaths don't hurt like this." She looks up at him and they lock eyes. He leans down and gently kisses her. She kisses him back.

 **Conclusion**

The story could go several places from here. This could be the end of it and Jessica could disappear from the story line of the show. Or she could have a Stockholm Syndrome thing where she falls in love with J, her "abuser," her "captor." Or Smurf or one of the boys could find out that J has been seeing Jessica and off her, or try to off her. Or they could go their separate ways and she could be seen going back to her life at work and playing frisbee while he continues to plan and execute jobs with his uncles.


End file.
